1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for managing network configurations in a window-based operating system environment. More particularly, the present invention relates to a more intuitive configuration and selection process for facilitating the association of a computer employing a windows-based operating system with a network environment.
2. Present State of the Art
The effectiveness of general purpose stand-alone computers, such as personal computers, has been proven and is readily apparent in the successful nature of the personal computer marketplace. Those familiar with computers appreciate that their capabilities and ease of use has progressed substantially thereby enabling the masses to make use of such execution devices. While computers alone have reached successful levels, peripherals such as printers and other devices have also become prevalent due to the interactive environment made available by the personal computer. While computers and peripherals alone have been successful and widely accepted beyond any possible original expectations, computers have also made available methods of communication and data exchange that enable individual personal computers to communicate with other types of devices. To facilitate such intercomputer interaction, networks have proliferated which enable a plurality of computers or a mixture of computers and peripherals to interact one with another.
Those familiar with networking technology appreciate that various networking configurations have developed which provide individual advantages and limitations in their particular topology. For example, local area networks (LAN) lend value to co-located computers by enabling individual computers to communicate with other computers or peripherals without requiring specific dedicated peripherals for each computer. Similarly, wide area networks (WAN) find application in remotely located computer applications wherein a remotely located computer contacts one or more computers or peripherals typically via a telephone system or other communication channel.
While computers and peripherals may efficiently interact via a network, in order to facilitate accurate and reliable interaction, computers, and more precisely the operating system controlling the personal computer hardware interacting with the network, must be properly and precisely configured. While modern windows-based computer operating systems provide a somewhat streamlined visual interface, networking configuration details require a user to enter configuration parameters into a number of separate windows in order to operably and properly configure the personal computer for interacting in a compliant and precise manner on the network. For example, the Microsoft(copyright) Windows 95(copyright) operating system is one such windows-based operating system that enables networked operation of the personal computer upon which it resides.
Those familiar with the Windows 95 operating system appreciate that several parameters must be defined in order for a personal computer to operably interact on a network. For example, in a WAN network environment, a personal computer must be configured to include various information such as xe2x80x9cdial-up networkxe2x80x9d information including telephone numbers, area codes and server type. Additionally, the personal computer must also store xe2x80x9clocationxe2x80x9d information relating to information that is specific to the personal computer being configured. In order to configure the dial-up network information and location information, multiple windows must be visited and traversed in the exemplary Windows 95 environment. For example, to populate the dial-up networking information, a user must access the Windows 95 xe2x80x9cprogramsxe2x80x9d menu and select the xe2x80x9caccessoriesxe2x80x9d submenu and in turn select the xe2x80x9cdial-up networkingxe2x80x9d subsubfolder. In that particular folder, a user must select specific information such as a particular modem and phone number.
Likewise, to select the xe2x80x9clocationxe2x80x9d information which is also required for establishing a wide area network connection, a user must select and traverse a separate menu in order to populate the xe2x80x9clocationxe2x80x9d information. For example, the network-configuring user selects the xe2x80x9csettingsxe2x80x9d folder and within that particular settings folder selects the xe2x80x9ccontrol panelxe2x80x9d window which enables a user to further select the modem setting and define the particular modem properties including specific dialing properties necessary for interfacing with a specific communication channel such as a telephone network.
It should be readily apparent that such an elementary configuration example for properly configuring a personal computer for interacting on a network has required a nonintuitive traversal of a plurality of menu windows. Additionally, specific xe2x80x9cgeneral accessxe2x80x9d properties must also be defined for completing the network configuration process. General access properties such as the definition of a particular proxy server are configured in the exemplary Windows 95 operating system by selecting the xe2x80x9csettingsxe2x80x9d window. Within that particular window, the user must also select the xe2x80x9ccontrol panelxe2x80x9d submenu and therein select the xe2x80x9cInternetxe2x80x9d option which further yet therein provides a plurality of tabulated windows, one of which is the xe2x80x9cconnectionxe2x80x9d tab which in turn permits the storage of one and only one defined proxy server.
Additionally, other general access properties include the specification of a default printer which requires a user to select the xe2x80x9csettingsxe2x80x9d window and further select the xe2x80x9cprintersxe2x80x9d subwindow. Yet additionally, another general access property that a user may wish to configure when defining a configuration of network parameters includes establishing the sharing of both file and print capabilities. Such a specification requires the user to select the xe2x80x9csettingsxe2x80x9d window and therein further select the xe2x80x9ccontrol panelxe2x80x9d subwindow and yet therein select the xe2x80x9cnetworkxe2x80x9d option which presents the user with a plurality of tabular windows, one of which is the target xe2x80x9cconfigurationxe2x80x9d tabular window.
It should be apparent from the previous example that the proper configuration of a computer in a corresponding network, namely a LAN or WAN, is anything but intuitive and simplistic at least in the dominant windows-based operating system environment. Since network configurations have heretofore been largely static, in that computers traditionally joined a network and remained on that particular network for some duration, cumbersome approaches to establishing an operative configuration in an operating system were tolerated since they typically required only a single configuration ordeal. However, with the advent of integration and miniaturization, computers have become increasingly more portable and therefore mobile. Modernly, a typical computer user may be assigned a single computer that may serve as both their office computer and their mobile or portable computer. To facilitate the interaction of a computer with other computers or peripherals in an office environment, a traditional LAN must host the portable computer thereby enabling the portable computer to interact with other computers and peripherals. Such an association requires that the operating system of the portable computer be properly configured for interacting on the LAN. However, when a portable computer disassociates with a LAN and otherwise associates with either a different LAN such as in the case of either reassociating the portable computer in a different LAN environment or, in the case of a WAN, such as when a user may employ their portable computer for communicating via a telephone line to another network, the portable computer must reassociate or be reconfigured to operably interact over the new network. In such applications, a user is required to subject themselves to the aforementioned battery of menus and options and hope that their configurations are sufficiently precise to enable them to both communicate on the subsequent network and reverse the re-configuration process of the portable computer to operably reassociate with its original network.
While it has been briefly alluded to, diverse working environments are becoming more commonplace to the computing public. For example, it is not uncommon for a particular user to operate their portable computer in one office environment and subsequently visit another division or operation of their business entity and thereat associate their personal computer with the resident network. Alternatively, personal computer users may also be performing computational activities in other environments such as hotel rooms, home offices or virtually anywhere utilizing wireless transceiver technology. In such transient work environments of the present, iterative network configuration and reconfiguration processes are laborious and costly both in terms of the time associated with the reconfiguration process and the lost productivity when an operable configuration is delayed or unattainable.
To compound the mobility issues associated with personal computers, it is readily accepted that as computers become more essential tools in society, individuals that are less computer-literate increasingly become personal computer users. As such, these particular users are less adept at performing network configurations on their personal computers and rely more heavily on computer specialists such as network administrators. In such a scenario, a network administrator would traditionally configure a personal computer for operating in a dominant network environment wherein the particular personal computer user primarily resides. Therefore, since the reconfiguration of the network configuration settings is unduly cumbersome, the less-sophisticated computer user has heretofore been resigned to either operate off-line in secondary environments or rely upon a subsequent interaction with the network administrator either via telephone or by other means to walk the particular user through the series of network reconfiguration steps.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a software application or utility that provides an intuitive interface for performing the network configuration process without requiring a user to be intimately familiar with a particular operating system.
It would yet be a further advantage to provide a method and system for providing a common interface for configuring both LAN and WAN environments while maintaining commonalities thereby reducing redundancy between such configuration information.
It would yet be an additional advantage for a method and system to be capable of storing multiple network configurations for easy selection between multiple network environments.
It would yet be a further improvement over the prior art to have a method and system capable of storing a network configuration in a file that is independently transferrable to another computer for use in configuring that target computer to inter-operate in a specific network configuration.
A further improvement over the prior art could be manifest in a method and system that is capable of loading and transferring particular network configurations between computers without requiring the actual imputing and on-screen editing of the configuration files by the recipient computer user.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an application which provides for multiple mobile network configurations which may be configured by users, network administrator, personnel, or others for use in compatibly and operably configuring a personal computer so as to be capable of interaction in either a local area network environment or a wide area network environment without requiring cumbersome and nonintuitive reconfiguration by a user.
In the present invention, a mobile configuration is a collection of profiles that when applied or activated configure the user""s computer to connect to a specific target network. In the present invention, a mobile configuration is comprised only of the necessary profiles required for interaction with the selected hardware device, e.g., a modem or network interface card.
In the present invention, a mobile configuration that employs a network interface card is comprised of a LAN profile and a general networking profile. A mobile configuration using a modem to establish a WAN connection is comprised of a location profile, a dial-up profile, and a general networking profile.
The mobile configuration manager application of the present invention provides to the user the ability to add, clone, modify, and delete mobile configurations and their associated profiles. If a mobile configuration has previously been created, the user may select it from a list of possible mobile configurations. A user may then choose to activate the mobile configuration, i.e., to instruct the mobile configuration manager of the present invention to change all system parameters to the values stores in the selected mobile configuration in order to facilitate the desired network connection. If no such mobile configuration has been created, the user may create a new configuration using the settings of an existing mobile configuration as a starting point or they may generate a mobile configuration from scratch.
The mobile configuration manager of the present invention also provides a mechanism for adding new mobile configurations other than by xe2x80x9cmanualxe2x80x9d creation. In other words, the mobile configuration manager of the present invention allows a user to create and xe2x80x9cexportxe2x80x9d a mobile configuration, or xe2x80x9cimportxe2x80x9d a mobile configuration created by another entity. For example, if a network administrator creates a mobile configuration for a plurality of mobile configurations necessary for connecting a user to, for example, a corporate remote access server, the user need only select the corresponding mobile configuration with the mobile configuration manager application distributing the various parameters necessary for facilitating the selected network connection.